PHILADELPHIA – With its largest victory since 2017, the Saint Joseph's women's basketball team (1-0) dominated Maryland Eastern Shore (0-1) Tuesday night in Hagan Arena with an 84-49 victory. The Hawks 84 points in the most in a game since the 2017-18 season.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED:

• St. Joe's scored nine-straight points out of the gate to force a timeout by UMES with 6:43 left in the opening frame. SJU outpaced its opponents 9-7 throughout the remainder of the period with six points total from junior Kaliah Henderson to lead all scorers after one. The Hawks had scored 15 unanswered before the visitors found the scoreboard. Defensively, St. Joe's held UMES to just 3-of-18 from the floor in the opening period.
• The home team opened the second stanza with a 7-0 spurt to force a timeout by the visitors at 7:45. Graduate student Katie Jekot tallied five of the seven points on the run. SJU held the advantage over the remainder of the half with a 12-11 differential for a 41-18 lead.
• After four unanswered points to start the third period by UMES, SJU took a 15-4 run into the media timeout at 4:18. On the stretch, Jekot accounted for nine points, with the other six coming from rookie Talya Brugler. The remaining time was nearly even with a 9-6 margin in favor of the home team.
• It was an even split of 24 points over the first 5:20 of the final frame. Freshmen Mackenzie Smith tallied six of St. Joe's total over that period. A 7-5 difference for SJU was the scoring margin to conclude the game.

BEHIND THE BOX SCORE:

• Twelve different Hawks registered a point as SJU shot 46.2% (30-of-65) from the floor and 41.7% (10-of-24) from deep.
• The 84 points is the most since St. Joe's defeated UMass 84-79 on Jan. 13, 2018.
• This was the largest margin of victory since the Hawks downed VCU on New Year's Eve in 2017, 79-41.
• St. Joe's finished with 22 assists to 11 turnovers, besting UMES' eight assists to 16 give ups.
• Jekot led all scorers with 16 points on a 5-of-8 night, including 4-of-6 from long range. She also added four assists and tied a career best of four steals.
• Brugler was next on the squad with 14 points on a 5-of-9 effort.
• Smith rounded out the double figure scoring totals with 12 points in her first career game. She shot a perfect 3-of-3, all from deep, and added three from the stripe.
• Senior Lovin Marsicano neared the double-digit plateau with nine points on 3-of-6 shooting.

UP NEXT:
The Hawks head across town on Friday to take on Drexel at 8 p.m. from the DAC.